SpaceX Paid $250,000 to a Flight Attendant Who Accused Elon Musk of Sexual Misconduct

• A flight attendant for SpaceX stated Elon Musk requested her to “do extra” throughout a therapeutic massage, paperwork present.
• The billionaire founder uncovered his penis to her and provided to purchase her a horse, in accordance with claims in a declaration.
• After she reported the incident to SpaceX, Musk’s firm paid her $250,000 as a part of a severance settlement.

SpaceX, the aerospace agency based by Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, paid a flight attendant $250,000 to settle a sexual misconduct declare in opposition to Musk in 2018, Insider has realized.

The attendant labored as a member of the cabin crew on a contract foundation for SpaceX’s company jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg with out consent, and providing to purchase her a horse in change for an erotic therapeutic massage, in accordance with interviews and paperwork obtained by Insider.

The incident, which occurred in 2016, is alleged in a declaration signed by a pal of the attendant and ready in help of her declare. The main points on this story are drawn from the declaration in addition to different paperwork, together with electronic mail correspondence and different data shared with Insider by the pal.

Based on the declaration, the attendant confided to the pal that after taking the flight attendant job, she was inspired to get licensed as a masseuse in order that she may give Musk massages. It was throughout one such therapeutic massage in a personal cabin on Musk’s Gulfstream G650ER, she instructed the pal, that Musk propositioned her.

After Insider contacted Musk for remark, he emailed to ask for extra time to reply and stated there’s “much more to this story.”

“If I had been inclined to have interaction in sexual harassment, that is unlikely to be the primary time in my total 30-year profession that it involves gentle,” he wrote, calling the story a “politically motivated hit piece.”

Insider prolonged the deadline and reiterated the supply to Musk to touch upon the claims. He didn’t reply.

Reached by way of mobile phone, SpaceX vice chairman of authorized Christopher Cardaci stated, “I am not going to touch upon any settlement agreements.” SpaceX didn’t reply to requests for remark to its normal media contact electronic mail handle.

An allegation that Musk provided a horse in change for an erotic therapeutic massage

The flight attendant instructed her pal that the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder requested her to come back to his room throughout a flight in late 2016 “for a full physique therapeutic massage,” the declaration says. When she arrived, the attendant discovered that Musk “was fully bare aside from a sheet overlaying the decrease half of his physique.” Through the therapeutic massage, the declaration says, Musk “uncovered his genitals” after which “touched her and provided to purchase her a horse if she would ‘do extra,’ referring to the efficiency of intercourse acts.” 

The attendant, who rides horses, declined and continued with the therapeutic massage with out participating in any sexual conduct. The attendant “is just not on the market,” the pal’s declaration stated. “She is just not going to carry out sexual favors for cash or presents.” The incident occurred throughout a flight to London.

In an interview with Insider, the pal described the attendant’s allegations in additional element. She spoke on the situation of anonymity, citing fears for her private security, however Insider is conscious of her identification. Insider can also be conscious of the flight attendant’s identification, however is just not naming her as a result of she has claimed to be a sufferer of sexual misconduct. She declined to remark for this story.

“He whipped out his penis, it was erect,” the pal stated, describing the allegations. “And he began propositioning her, like he touched her thigh and instructed her he would purchase her a horse. And he mainly tried to bribe her to carry out some kind of sexual favor.”

“Punished for refusing to prostitute herself”

The pal stated that the attendant instructed her in regards to the misconduct whereas they had been on a hike collectively shortly after the London journey. The pal described the attendant as distraught and visibly shaken. “She was actually upset,” the pal stated. “She did not know what to do.”

The flight attendant instructed her pal that work started to dry up after she refused Musk’s advances. “Earlier than the incident, she regarded Mr. Musk as an individual to look as much as,” the declaration says. “However after he uncovered himself, touched her with out permission, and provided to pay her for intercourse, she was full of hysteria.” 

“She figured issues may simply return to regular and he or she would faux like nothing occurred,” the pal instructed Insider. “Nevertheless, she began to really feel as if she was receiving some kind of retaliation the place her shifts had been reduce, and he or she was beginning to really feel actually pressured.”

Ultimately, the declaration says, the attendant felt “she was being pushed out and punished for refusing to prostitute herself.”

Massages on demand

SpaceX locations a particular emphasis on massages, going as far as to make use of in-house therapeutic massage therapists as a perk for executives. Based on the pal, the flight attendant was inspired by her superiors to buy her personal skilled therapeutic massage coaching for her classes with Musk. 

“They inspired her to get licensed as a masseuse, however on her personal time, on her personal dime,” the pal stated. “They implied that she would get to fly extra usually if she had been to do that as a result of she’d be capable to give Elon correct massages. I assumed that was type of unusual as a result of — you were not employed to be a masseuse. You had been employed to be a flight attendant. And if Elon likes massages, then he needs to be paying so that you can go to masseuse faculty. However she was simply so completely happy and desirous to have the job and be capable to journey.”

A $250,000 severance cost

In 2018, after turning into satisfied that her refusal to simply accept Musk’s proposal had diminished her alternatives at SpaceX, the attendant employed a California employment lawyer and despatched a grievance to the corporate’s human sources division detailing the episode. Round that point, the legal professional’s agency contacted the pal and requested her to arrange the declaration corroborating the claims.

The attendant’s grievance was resolved shortly after a session with a mediator that Musk personally attended. The matter by no means reached a courtroom of regulation or an arbitration continuing. In November 2018, Musk, SpaceX and the flight attendant entered right into a severance settlement granting the attendant a $250,000 cost in change for a promise to not sue over the claims.

The settlement additionally included restrictive non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses that bar the attendant from ever discussing the severance cost or disclosing any info of any variety about Musk and his companies, together with SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk is presently engaged in a bid to buy Twitter pushed by his professed perception that “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.” Earlier this month, he wrote on Twitter that “daylight is the very best disinfectant.”

Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark.

“Once you select to stay silent, you change into a part of that system”

The pal instructed Insider that she determined to come back ahead with out consulting the flight attendant as a result of, as a survivor of sexual assault, she felt an obligation to share what she has been instructed about Musk. Not like the flight attendant, her pal is just not sure by any non-disclosure settlement.

“I completely felt a duty to come back ahead with it, particularly now,” she stated. “He’s the richest man on the earth. Somebody with that stage of energy inflicting that type of hurt after which throwing some cash on the scenario, that is not accountability. There are predators all around the world. However when somebody is especially rich and highly effective, they actually have techniques which might be like a machine working for them, to set them up to have the ability to do no matter they need.”

Remaining silent, the pal stated, would make her complicit. “Once you select to stay silent, yeah, you do change into part of that system,” she stated. “You do change into part of that machine that enables somebody like Elon Musk to proceed to do the horrible issues that he is completed.”

Non-disclosure agreements are essential elements of that machine. The pal stated that earlier than she reached out to Insider, she referred to as the legal professional who represented the sufferer. The legal professional instructed her that, though she was free to talk to the press, sharing any paperwork from the case — together with her personal declaration — may put the flight attendant in danger.

“Her major concern was clearly her consumer,” the pal stated. She recalled the legal professional saying that confidentiality provisions are “bullshit” and that if every other ladies have been victimized by Musk, they ought to come back ahead. However when it got here to her consumer, the legal professional urged the pal to not share the declaration. “That might be a large downside,” she instructed the pal.

California, the place SpaceX is headquartered, now not permits corporations to require non-disclosure clauses in agreements just like the one the attendant signed. Simply months after her settlement in 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into regulation the “Stand In opposition to Non-Disclosure Act,” which bars the usage of NDAs going ahead in settlements involving sexual harassment, discrimination, or assault until they’re requested by the plaintiff.

The legal professional didn’t reply to requests for remark.

“If there have been a approach for [her] to come back ahead with out placing herself in danger, with out jeopardizing her life in any approach, I imagine she would,” the pal of the attendant instructed Insider. “I hope she looks like I did the best factor. I hope she feels I stated the issues that she did not really feel protected sufficient to say.”

“I would love for the reality to be revealed”

That is the one recognized allegation and settlement for sexual misconduct tied personally to Musk. 

Two of his corporations, nonetheless, have confronted allegations of sexual harassment up to now. In December 2021, the identical week he was named Time’s Individual of the 12 months, 4 ladies who labored at SpaceX spoke out about sexual harassment they stated they confronted on the firm, the place Musk is the CEO. One, Ashley Kosak, printed an essay recounting being groped and touched inappropriately by male workers whereas she was an intern. Three others — certainly one of whom stated she was sure by a non-disclosure settlement — recounted comparable remedy to the New York Occasions.

In response to the reviews, SpaceX president and chief working officer Gwynne Shotwell despatched a company-wide electronic mail saying that “well timed reporting of harassment is vital to our sustaining SpaceX as an important place to work; we will not repair what we do not know,” the Occasions reported. She added that SpaceX will “rigorously examine all harassment or discrimination claims and take speedy and applicable motion once we discover our coverage is violated.”

And no less than six ladies have sued Tesla, the place Musk is the CEO, alleging sexual harassment at a Tesla manufacturing unit. Males on the manufacturing unit ogled ladies and remarked on their garments, the complaints stated, main some ladies to put on saggy outfits and use stacks of bins to hinder the views of leering co-workers. A number of the ladies claimed they had been retaliated in opposition to once they got here ahead.

The pal instructed Insider that if anybody else was mistreated by Musk, she hopes they are going to publicly inform their story. If there are different victims, she stated, “I would love for them to come back ahead. I would love for the reality to be revealed.”

Do you’ve vital info to share about Musk, SpaceX, or his different corporations? Contact us at investigations@insider.com.